Second Stuntman Testifies Vs. Actor Blake

Published 7:00 pm, Friday, February 28, 2003

A second Hollywood stuntman has testified a desperate Robert Blake wanted his wife killed.

Retired stuntman Ronald "Duffy" Hambleton on Friday testified Blake was at his wits end over his wife's activities, saying he wanted her "snuffed."

Hambleton said the actor first broached the subject in a March 2001 meeting Hambleton attended thinking they would discuss a movie project. He said he was stunned.

"He became more aggressive in his talk and his state of agitation," said Hambleton. "He said it was necessary to get the job done immediately if not sooner because he couldn't handle it anymore. If I couldn't do it, he would do it."

The stuntman's testimony came on the third day of a preliminary hearing that will determine whether Blake, 69, will stand trial on charges of murdering wife Bonny Lee Bakley on May 4, 2001, and whether Blake's handyman-bodyguard, Earle Caldwell, will be tried for conspiracy. The hearing resumes Monday.

The 44-year-old mother of Blake's young daughter Rose was shot as she sat in a car after having dinner with Blake at an Italian restaurant he frequented so often one of the dishes on the menu was named for him.

He claims she was shot after he returned to the restaurant to get a gun he left behind. The prosecution is seeking to show Blake was the killer.

It is a circumstantial case relying heavily on proof of motive. Bakley was a woman with a past as a con artist, bilking lonely men out of money in a mail-order business in which she sent out naked pictures of herself with promises of romance.

Friday's testimony from Hambleton followed that of retired stuntman Gary McLarty, 69, who said Wednesday that Blake offered him $10,000 to "pop" Bakley and suggested a restaurant as a site for the killing.

And on Thursday, a retired homicide detective, William Welch, said Blake tried to recruit him to "whack" Bakley while she was still pregnant with his child and before he married her.

"He said, 'We're going to hire a doctor, we're going to abort her and if that doesn't work we're going to whack her,'" Welch testified.

Also Friday, one of the case's lead detectives came in for severe grilling by the defense when he acknowledged he brought an author to the scene of the crime, allowed him to view evidence and shared insights into the celebrity case with him.

The questioning of Detective Ron Ito by defense attorney Thomas Mesereau Jr. was reminiscent of the O.J. Simpson murder case, in which defense attorneys put the Los Angeles Police Department's methods on trial.

Ito said he wasn't courting writer Miles Corwin to make sure a book being written about the case would feature Ito as the crime-fighting hero. He said former Police Chief Bernard Parks gave Corwin access to the robbery-homicide division for a book he felt would be favorable to the department.